Pre-2010 NMRA Ford Nationals Information & Schedule - Open Season

What To Expect From The Upcoming Season Of NMRA Racing

Paul Rosner

March 5, 2010

Horse Sense: If you've checked out the '10 schedule, you noticed that there's an additional non-points race on the calendar. This race brings all-Ford action back to the Mustang stronghold of Georgia, so we're expecting some big crowds in Commerce, Georgia.

2010 NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford NationalsFor Blue Oval fanatics across the nation, there's a party coming to nine exceptional locations around the country this year. The NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals will offer fierce heads-up, bumper draggin' action from classes as divergent as the 10-inch-tire Freak Show known as Super Street Outlaw to the consistent competitors in Open Comp. Racers will face the hottest competition from around the country. To win in the NMRA, you have to beat the best!

Fans and racers will behold the most magnificent array of Blue Oval hot rods-both old and new-in the UPR Products all-Ford Auto Show & Shine, 300-plus-mph jet-car runs, burnout contests, and more. In addition, these events are a bargain shoppers' paradise as each event assembles one of the largest manufacturers' midways and oodles of swappers ready to negotiate hot deals. In short, if you are into high-performance Fords, you'll find something to enjoy at the NMRA events.

Outlaw 10.5WThis class attracts the fastest and quickest Ford-powered 10.5W Mustang and Ford-bodied Outlaw streetcars from the deep South, up the East Coast, and throughout the Midwest. They will commence a full-scale invasion of the series as combatants attempt to exhibit their turbocharged, nitrous oxide-injected, or supercharged muscles while bankrolling the big purse and contingency cash. Combatants will annihilate the 10.5Wx33-inch drag slicks past the eighth-mile cones to get them hot and sticky before attempting to hook the nearly 3,000 hp for at least 1,320 feet in just over 6 seconds.

Watch ListLivernois Motorsports partner and 2009 champ Dan Millen has one of the most high-tech racing shops and staff at his disposal and it shows. Ten-time former champ Mike Murillo's sick big-block, twin-turbo '93 coupe Dark Star car settled for two early season wins, finished second in 2009 and has plans for one more move in the points. Conrad Scarry's twin-turbo '04 Cobra won the title in 2008 and put it on the roof in early 2009, but by the end of the season he was back in championship form, hungry for his title back. Transmission-wizard Keith Neal's '04 Cobra is one of the only twin-turbo, small-block entries; he got a win at the season opener and a runner-up at the finals. Watch out if they put a full season together. Jim Brown fields the lone nitrous-oxide car; he got his first win at the finals and could be a dark horse in the chase.

Super Street OutlawBlaring echoes of supercharged engines; the wheezing sneeze of spooled-up turbocharger wastegates dumping boost after leaving the water box; or the tell-tale frosty purge skyward of a triple-stage, nitrous oxide-injected big-block are all sights and sounds of the wildest, most unpredictable class in Ford drag racing-the 10-inch-tire Freak Show. The narrowly adequate, 28.6x10.6-inch mandated rear slick guarantees side-by-side slippery action from start to stripe, so grab the edge of your seat and prepare to witness some of the wildest rides you'll ever see in 7.5 seconds.

Watch ListThe Hellion boys probably show up in the nightmares of Super Street Outlaw competitors across the country. They visited five out of seven finals en route to John Urist's fifth title, the fourth in a row. John MacDonald's 388-cube ProCharger combination and nitrous-wizard Don Burton's Fulton big-block Fox both visited the finals on three occasions; both picked up a win and ended up a mere 15 points apart by the season's end. Chris Tuten has won multiple titles in a couple classes in the same '87 hatchback, now powered by a turbocharged 360-cube combo.